Ronan Scully sets off on his Irish Camino

Galway Advertiser, Thu, Mar 23, 2017

Ronan Scully and his daughter Mia Scully training for his charity walk.

Renowned charity fundraiser Ronan Scully will put his best foot forward along with family, friends, and colleagues as he celebrates his 50th birthday next week by walking across Ireland for charity. He will also be joined and supported/sponsored by Paul Galvin and his staff from Galvin’s Menswear shop in Tullamore, Co Offaly; Richard Donovan of the North Pole Marathon and Global Running Adventures, based in Galway; and Eamon Victory of Centra Shop, Dunleer, Co Louth.

Ronan Scully is using his half-centurty to do what he does best, as he aims to raise a minimum of €20,000 for some very worthy causes including Gorta Self Help Africa, the Galway Rape Crisis Centre, and a homeless charity working with families in the midlands. Scully and his companions will help to support many families in need in Africa and Ireland with a week-long Bay to Bay Walk from Dublin to his adopted home in Galway.

The charity walk will enable him to celebrate another memorable milestone, as Mr Scully celebrates 25 years in the world of international development and charity.

Having worked for a number of years with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, Mr Scully then spent more than a decade in India, Nepal, Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sierra Leone with Irish-based humanitarian organisation GOAL, before taking up his current role as business development coordinator in the west of Ireland with Gorta-Self Help Africa.

In the past 15 years he is estimated to have generated in excess of €20 million for these, and other worthwhile causes.

The upcoming 250km trip, which he describes as “a sort of Irish Camino” will start from the Gorta-Self Help Africa’s Dublin headquarters on Monday March 27, and will conclude with a 5k charity walk on Salthill Promenade on Saturday afternoon at 3pm. All are welcome to join him in Salthill for this event — participants can register at The Claddagh Hall on the day for the 5km walk and make a donation of €15, or whatever they can afford, towards the charities.

Offaly-born Ronan Scully will be joined at different stages of the walk by family, friends, supporters, and staff from Galvin’s Menswear Shop Tullamore, on his prayerful and celebratory journey across Ireland.

“We have a number of social events and gatherings arranged along the route, and there will be various sports people and others joining me at different stages of the trip,” he said.

A former RTE Operation Transformation finalist, Mr Scully has organised races, walks, climbs, social events, charity galas, and fundraising expeditions too numerous to mention over the years, and even undertook a hike to the North Pole in aid of various charities a number of years ago, funded by Richard Donovan, founder of the North Pole Marathon/Global Running Adventures.

Paying tribute to all who have supported him in his efforts over the past 25 years, Ronan Scully said that the upcoming cross-country walk would give him a chance to say thank you to so many people who had supported him in his work with some of the poorest people and children on our planet, and also to light a candle for everyone at certain stages along the way in thanksgiving for the people who have helped him and have been part of his journey over the last 50 years.

“I am looking at it as a prayerful journey and a celebration – of my own milestone, the time that I’ve spent working for charity, and also of the many incredible people who I have crossed paths with in this line of work over the past 25 years and who gave so much of themselves so that we could help so many people and children in need around our world,” he said.